queries

[tigriswolf]

So, if someone were to write a fic about secret doorways into/outta Hell that Dean knows about because he could go anywhere those years he was Alistair's favorite, should the flashbacks or the present be italized?

Also, if two of your characters have pretty much the ultimate power--like, say, reality bending, such that Charlie could tell Jim, "Hey, Jim, you're a girl" and quite suddenly, Jim is a girl or the ability to negate others' powers--how would the villain take them out before his plan goes into motion?

Comments

[isaacsapphire.livejournal.com]

Flashbacks should be italicized if they are shorter than the main section. Italics are more difficult to read than regular type, so they should be used for whatever is shorter.

As for taking out "ultimate powers", I'd say very very carefully, using emotional manipulation and the overpowered person's niceness or other personality-based weaknesses. The villain has to get close enough to them, so the villein has to be trusted. Alternatively, read the fine print and kill them using some little detail that their powers didn't cover. I remember one superhero who was killed by suffocation because he was otherwise invulnerable.

[tigriswolf]

Oh, who was that?

[isaacsapphire.livejournal.com]

I think it was a character in "Powers" maybe? It was a series where a group of children all born/conceived within the same narrow period of time (a couple weeks or a month) in a town had a variety of powers, some initially apparently useless. Each time one of them died, all of the rest became that much stronger. Someone is killing the group off though, and the first one to go is the invulnerable one, presumably because whoever's doing it knows what they're doing and knew the fine print for his powers and decided to get rid of the most difficult one first. Presumably they were also trusted by the guy, since I think the murderer managed to get a plastic bag over his head. I read it several years ago.

My methods all demand close contact with the ultimate powered one, or at least an inside source (although the inside source doesn't have to be aware of their own betrayal and could think they were just sharing information with a researcher, journalist, or date.)

I firmly believe

[cattraine.livejournal.com]

there is a Express elevator down to Hell---but you have to take stairs back up! *nods* ;-D

Re: I firmly believe

[tigriswolf]

*hee*

[tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com]

LOL, um, I'd say neither has to be italicized. I doubt there'd be any way of confusing Hell scenes with non-Hell scenes, so as long as there's a definite scene break, the reader should be able to figure out. And I've heard italics make some people run and hide (as does present tense. *razzberry*)

I dunno about the other. :P

[tigriswolf]

Aw, but I love italics and present tense!

[r-a-l-i-g-h.livejournal.com]

if two of your characters have pretty much the ultimate power--like, say, reality bending, such that Charlie could tell Jim, "Hey, Jim, you're a girl" and quite suddenly, Jim is a girl or the ability to negate others' powers--how would the villain take them out before his plan goes into motion?
Hmmm.

I'd say you could probably use some application of Game Theory, either as simplistic as "Please don't throw me in the briar patch!" or more complicated where the opponent is one step ahead viewing the possible options and somehow tricks/persuades the all-powerful individual to take the exact action needed to eliminate them.

(For instance: luring a power-negating person unknowingly into an area with some sort of power-related Devil's Trap/roach motel type thing [i.e. normal people can come and go, but people with powers are stuck once inside] Then when "Charlie" activates his ability and negates the villain's power, the villain is able to walk away to take over the world [or whatever] with his all-powerful nemesis safely out of the way.

(Or with the reality-bending individual, forcing them to make a change [that SEEMS like a spontaneous idea of their own free will] but actually does exactly what YOU want, and/or contains some sort of "fine print"/side effect they didn't think of in time [ex: like at the end of Aladdin, when Jaffa seeks to gain ultimate power as a genie ... without realizing the downside to that position.])

[tigriswolf]

Ooh, those are interesting!